Martin Marincin and Martin Gernat pair up in World Junior quarterfinal against Finland

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Immersed in the Edmonton pool of the World Juniors, I was barely able to watch the goings-on in Group A down south, just a little snippet here and there. I missed Slovakia almost completely, including their bookend defence pair of Oiler prospects Martin Marincin (second round, 2010) and Martin Gernat (fifth round, 2011). Fortunately, the Slovaks pulled off a major comeback and at least a minor upset in beating Switzerland 6-4 on New Year’s Eve, with each of the Martys scoring a key tally in the Slovak’s four-goal uprising in the final frame. Thus they qualified for yesterday afternoon’s quarterfinal against Finland, allowing one more opportunity to watch their performance under the microscope of a sudden death game.

Joined the match late thanks to some US college football coach who didn’t have the, uhm, wherewithal to go for a two-point convert to win the darn game when he had the other team’s defence gasping at the end of a long drive (and game). Three overtimes and three field goals later, we joined the Slovakia-Finland game five minutes in, with the Finns already on the board. Some dude named Bene tipped it into his own net, with both Martys on the ice but nowhere near at fault.

Our two Martys seemed to be paired together for the most part, with Gernat (#25) on the right and Marincin (#21) on the left. At least they’re not both wearing #28 like they do in the Dub! The towering pair is clearly the #1 duo on the Slovaks, playing together at evens and on both special teams.

This scouting report nearly ended before it began, as on the first PK both Martys got dinged up same shift! First of all Gernat got beaned by wayward slapshot that bounced off his head and over the glass; then on the next play Marincin took a shot off his foot that hobbled him briefly, still he recovered to make two fine defensive plays on an extended delayed penalty. Fortunately neither knock was serious, in fact Marincin stayed out and Gernat joined him to kill off the lion’s share of the 3-on-5 that followed. Marincin later made a splendid play to break up a pass, chip the puck to the good ice, then casually but safely meander around his own zone to kill off a few seconds before calmly icing the puck.

Of the two Marincin was clearly the more advanced player, not surprising considering he is both a year older and of a higher draft pedigree than his namesake. For sure he grabbed my attention much more frequently over the course of the game. He seemed to be around the puck quite a bit more, making good decisions with it for the most part, didn’t try to shoot when the shot wasn’t there but was content to work it around with his slick passing skills. Defensively, Marincin’s stick always seemed to be in there fishing for the puck, and he hooked it free more than once. His reach is so spectacularly long that he is able to maintain gap control and still get his blade into the puck carrier’s kitchen all at once.

Marincin looked real solid on the breakout, very composed and commanding. It’s his third World Juniors and you can tell. With his long reach and quick stick he was able to dispossess the Finns a few times, and any loose puck that came within the rather large area of ice he commanded was quickly turned in the right direction. His breakout pass on a late-first-period powerplay started the rush that ended with the 2-2 goal, a four-way passing play so Marincin didn’t hit the scoresheet. He later got an assist as his point shot got neatly deflected by a net-crashing teammate to the goal scorer.

Gernat meanwhile had a couple of adventures in his own end, some good plays too as he was certainly active enough, he just was a little more frenetic and had trouble clearing the puck at times. He also was nicely involved in the offensive zone, firing several point shots into traffic that caused Sami Aittokallio a little grief in the Finnish net. Like Marincin his strength is in moving the puck, although he showed more of a propensity to jump into the play when he perceived an opening.

Things came apart for the Slovaks in the second period when the Finns struck for four quick goals. The Martys were on the ice for two of them. After a long PK that featured some excellent puck battling (and winning) by Marincin, the pair were unable to make the long change. Right at the end of the sequence the Slovaks lost their shape slightly opening up a shooting lane for Mikael Granlund, a.k.a. “The Wrong Guy”, who beat Juraj Simboch with a perfect, though perfectly stoppable, wrister off the short side post.

Both got burned minutes later on Alexander Barkov’s goal, Gernat pinching at centre stopping the man but not the chip through to Barkov, and Marincin not reacting quickly enough when Barkov burned around the forward trying to cover. My most serious criticism of Marincin’s game was his occasionally poor reaction to emergency situations after one or more teammates got beaten on a play.

After they cut the gap to 6-4, the Slovakians again got behind the eight-ball late in the third through some truly horrid officiating that put them a man down for five minutes and two down for two, and the Finns started pouring in the powerplay goals. On one of them, Marincin tried and failed to block one point shot, serving instead to screen his goalie.

At the end of the day Slovakia had a number of good moments, managing to pump five goals past the previously-impregnable Aittokallio, but were beaten for eight themselves in a sloppy affair that “featured” some crummy netminding at both ends of the ice. The Slovaks have one game remaining, against natural rivals Czech Republic (and a third Oilers blueline prospect, David Musil) for fifth place honours. Alas, that edition of the Velvet Revolution will not be televised.

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